Making a difference
I showed the Dylan documentary to Marc and Rebecca tonight so I got another chance to sort out my feelings. Basically, I am too close to it to really be able to look at it objectively. So I have massive conflicts about it. On the one hand, I recognize his genius and the direction he took that revolutionized rock music, setting the trend for the next fifty years. I totally love songs like Visions of Johanna, Like a Rolling Stone, It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry and others. So I think the world gained a lot from his transition but I also think it lost a lot.
It wasn't just a question of being pigeon holed into one genre, it was a total transformation from caring a lot to not caring at all and getting heavily involved in drugs that led to his accident. I don't find it relevant what he has to say about it now. It's like Martin Luther King had lived to 75 and looked back and said I never wanted to be a civil rights leader and that isn't really who I am. That would be outside of my experience as is what Dylan is saying now.
As I said in my initial review, Dylan was great no matter what he did but I for one think he could have made a bigger difference if he had continued to use his voice to help change the direction of the world.
"They must find it hard, those who have taken authority as truth, rather than truth as authority" Gerald Massey
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